In making permanent waves or water waves, the hair is first softened by the use of an appropriate solution, is then wound around curlers of different sizes and is finally dried. In order that the hair will not unwind again off the curler, or in order that the curler will be held on the hair, it is known to use a rubber band which is suspended from one end of the curler and is stretched over the hair to the other end of the curler. The application of the rubber band to the softened hair causes pressure marks and damage to the hair.
For this reason, permanent-wave or water-wave curlers of the aforesaid type are known (see U.S. Pat. No. 3,474,797) having a holding member at each end of the curler body. In these known permanent-wave or water-wave curlers, the holding members consist of wide rings, which have the elements of a "hook-and-eye" fastener on their outer periphery. This means that one ring is provided on its external periphery with a plurality of hooks, while the other ring has a plurality of eyes. Apart from the fact that such hook-and-eye rings are expensive to make and can also easily come loose from the curler body, they also have the disadvantage that hair and other foreign bodies can adhere fast in the hooks and eyes, so that the hook-and-eye fastener gradually becomes unserviceable. The constant heating effect during the drying of the permanent waves or water waves is also a contributory factor.
In addition, when winding the hair on the curler, care must be taken to turn the curler always into a position such that a ring with hooks and a ring with eyes always lie opposite one another, otherwise the hook-and-eye principle does not function. This disadvantage has already been recognized and an attempt has been made to remove it by arranging on one end of each curler body three rings, two of which have hooks and the third has eyes. Then, on the other end of the curler body two rings were provided with eyes and a third with hooks. In this way, however, the known permanent-wave or water-wave curler was still more expensive to make, and in addition the width over which the rings or two adjacent curlers were in engagement was reduced. In order, nevertheless, to obtain a satisfactory holding effect, the hook-and-eye fastener rings had to be comparatively wide, resulting in a correspondingly greater overall length of the permanent-wave or water-wave curler for a relatively shorter useful length of the actual curler body. In the case of friseurs, in which very many curlers have to be used, the large overall length of the known curlers is very troublesome.
The object of the invention is to provide a permanent-wave or water-wave curler of the aforesaid kind, which is essentially simpler in its construction and therefore cheaper to manufacture, has a shorter overall length and at the same time ensures with certainty the holding together of two adjacent curlers.
This is achieved according to the invention in that as holding bodies, there are provided on the end of the curler body two flanges arranged at an axial distance apart, said flanges having substantially equal thickness and substantially equal diameters and forming an annular groove between themselves the width of which groove is somewhat smaller than the thickness of a flange, so that a flange of an adjacent curler can be pressed into the said groove with a wedging effect.
The permanent-wave or water-wave curler according to the invention is characterized by a particularly simple construction, high durability and trouble-free manipulation. The two flanges provided at each end of the curler body are particularly simple to manufacture. They may consist, for example, of plastics material and may be of one piece with the curler body. No hair or other foreign bodies can become attached to the comparatively smooth surfaces of the flanges. In addition, they are not affected by the heat used in drying the permanent-wave or water-wave. By pressing the flange of one curler into the annular groove between the flanges of the other curler, two or more curlers with hair wound on them can be securely held simply by the wedging effect. Manipulation is very simple since the construction of the curlers is the same at both ends, so that is does not matter on which side any particular end lies. When pressing the flanges into one another, the curlers merely have to be offset relatively to each other in the axial direction by the thickness of a flange. Since the flanges may also be made relatively thin, the curler has a slight overall length, the actual useful length of the curler body being very large in proportion to the overall length. Consequently, in the case of complicated friseurs very many curlers can be used without their interfering with each other. The curlers according to the invention furthermore have the advantage, which is also shared by the known curlers mentioned in the preamble, i.e. that the hair is dealt with extremely carefully and no pressure marks or hair damage whatsoever can occur.